Published: March 01, 2009 12:37 am      

Cougars finish out season on high note

At one point, it got to be a little too much for Mountain State guard Anthony Pigram.

“I got tired of coach (Bob) Bolen being in my ear, yelling, ‘Make a shot!’” Pigram said after MSU’s 91-47 regular-season-ending win over Allen Saturday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center. “I’m glad he did it, though. He was doing it for the right reason.”

Pigram, who started the season averaging over 20 points per game, went into a horrific funk and at one point wasn’t even in the starting lineup. He was enduring 1-10, 2-12 nights, and truth be told, he was getting tired of it himself.

“It was (difficult), but they always say shooters keep shooting,” Pigram said. “I guess I had it in my back pocket. But it’s time to get it out because this is the postseason. We have the (Independent) region tournament and then nationals. I have to, we all have to, bring our best.”

Don’t look now, but Pigram has emptied his pockets and is returning to form.

On Senior Night, the junior finished 7-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-7 from three-point range for 17 points. He also had five rebounds and three of MSU’s 27 assists (on 34 made field goals).

NAIA Division I No. 3 MSU improved to 26-3 on the season.

“A lot of work,” Pigram said of getting back in the groove. “A lot of individual work and a lot of shooting in the gym.”

His added offensive output to go along with the play of Nick Aldridge (21 points, 11 rebounds and a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor, including several slick moves and reverse lay-ins in the paint), always steady Anthony Lee (17 points, four rebounds) and Bo Harris (10 points, four rebounds) just adds to the Cougars’ arsenal, which now seems fully stocked.

Not that it was good in the beginning Saturday, as Allen jumped out to a 5-0 lead and MSU looked ragged on offense.

“I thought we looked a little lethargic for it to be Senior Night,” Bolen, one win from his 400th at MSU, said. “But we were good on defense. Coach (Dave) Barksdale told A.J. (Pigram) and Tony at halftime that they had played their best defensive half of the season. For him to say that ... they must have been good on defense. We started to shoot the ball better and we found the guys who were open and then we got into a good rhythm. It was a good way to end the season.”

After the slow start, MSU rebounded to lead 49-27 at the half. It was a stark contrast to the first meeting at Allen, when MSU was limited to just 28 points in the first half, its worst offensive output of the season.

This time it was Allen which struggled, going just 11-of-33 in the first half, including 5-of-19 from beyond the arc. MSU also outrebounded Allen 58-29 in the game.

MSU once again was over 50 percent for the game (52.3 percent). The Cougars’ starting five was a combined 25-of-38, including Tony Brown’s 0-for-6 showing. But Brown also had nine assists and four rebounds.

“It’s nice to see A.J. getting his shot back, which we knew he would do,” Bolen said. “He’s a shooter and shooters are going to go through slumps. It was only a matter of time before it returned.”

Four MSU seniors were honored before the game: Ermin Tarcin, Daniel Scott, Harris and Brown.

All contributed and scored in the game.

In addition to Harris and Brown, Scott had six points and Tarcin had a point and five rebounds.

MSU is off until next weekend when it travels to Claflin College in Orangeburg, S.C., for the Independent Regional. Dates and times will be released later this week.

“It’s going to be tough,” Bolen said. “We have six 20-win teams in the tournament.”

“We’re ready,” Pigram added. “We just have to play the way we can. We have to get that (national championship) ring.”

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com



ALLEN UNIVERSITY (6-18)

Martavious Wimberly 2-7 0-0 5, Demetrice Terrell 5-17 2-4 14, Byron Littlejohn 3-16 0-2 8, Jeremy Crawford 1-2 0-2 2, Jordan Daniels 0-2 0-0 0, Anthony Gordon 0-0 1-2 1, Karim Rodriguez 1-6 0-0 3, Morton Dowdy 3-6 0-0 7, Lapreese Simon 0-0 0-0 0, Corey Williams 1-7 4-5 6, Trevor Speights 0-0 0-0 0, Chavis Darby 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 16-63 8-17 47.

MOUNTAIN STATE UNIVERSITY (26-3)

Anthony Pigram 7-10 0-0 18, Tony Brown 0-6 1-3 1, Andrew Lee 6-8 4-7 17, Nick Aldridge 7-7 7-10 21, Bo Harris 5-7 0-0 10, Adinson Mosquera 3-3 0-0 6, Rashad Nesbitt 1-2 0-0 2, Daniel Scott 2-7 0-0 6, Vedrin Zivic 3-7 2-2 9, Josh Wamsley 0-1 0-0 0, Greg Grimes 0-0 0-0 0, Franklin Jones 0-3 0-0 0, Ermin Tarcin 0-4 1-2 1. Totals: 34-65 15-24 91.

Halftime: MSU 49-27. Three-point goals: AU 7-35 (Wimberly 1-2, Terrell 2-12, Littlejohn 2-13, Rodriguez 1-4, Dowdy 1-2, Williams 0-2); MSU 8-21 (Pigram 4-7, Brown 0-4, Lee 1-1, Harris 0-1, Scott 2-4, Zivic 1-4). Rebounds: AU 29 (Littlejohn 6, Williams 6); MSU 58 (Aldridge 11). Assists: AU 7 (Terrell 4); MSU 27 (Brown 9). Fouls: AU 18; MSU 14. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.